Liberal Arts Services

LLILAS Affiliate Fernando Lara Pens Houston Chronicle Op-Ed

Posted: June 12, 2014

LLILAS faculty affiliate Fernando Luiz Lara has had an op-ed published in the Houston Chronicle titled “Don’t Wait for Mega-Events to Build Public Projects.” Lara is associate professor at the School of Architecture, and director of the Brazil Center.

Writing from Brazil on the eve of the 2014 World Cup, which will be hosted in 12 Brazilian cities, Lara questions the value of mega-events for cities and enumerates the ways in which Brazilians have gotten the short end of the stick: heaps of money spent on stadiums that will be underused, people displaced from their homes for construction projects, and disruptive preparations for the Summer Olympics of 2016—also to be held in Brazil—already under way. Lara expands his argument to question the benefit of mega-events in Texas cities as well.